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" UNITE JsTATEs PATENT ors IMMANUEL PFEIFFER, or iBE'D'FORZD, MASSACHUSETTS.

BUCKLE.

Specification of Letters'latent. Patented Sept. 23,1919.

' Application filed December 9,1918. serial no.

To (ZZZ whom it may comm a citizen of the United States, residing at Bedford, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Buckles, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a buckle comprising a frame and prongs hinged to the frame and cooperating therewith in performing the usual function of the buckle.

The invention is embodied in the improvements which I will now proceed to describe and claim.

Of the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a side view of the frame of my improved buckle, before the same is completed by forming a hinge socket thereon.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the completed buckle Fig. 5 is an end View of the completed buckle.

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 4.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in all of the figures.

The frame of my improved buckle is made from a sheet metal blank having the form represented by Fig. 1. The frame is composed of marginal transverse end bars 14, inner and outer marginal longitudinal bars 15 and 16, and a central longitudinal bar 17 The blank may be cut by suitable dies from sheet metal, the dies being formed to leave a tongue 17 on the bar 17. The bar 17 is offset from the inner side of the frame and is channeled at 17 the channeled side of the bar facing outwardly, so that the bar forms an inner hinge socket portion which projects from the inner portion of the frame as shown by Figs. 2, 3, 5 and 6. The outer side of said socket is formed by bending the ear 17 over the said inner socket portion 17 b as shown by Figs. 1, 5, and 6, said outer socket portion projecting from the outer side of the frame.

With the frame is associated a stapleshaped member which includes pointed staple.

i The neck l is placed upon the Be it known that I, IMMANUEL P I'FFER,

inner socket portion of the frame bar 17, and the ear 17 is then bent as shown by Figs. 4, 5 and 6, to complete a hinge socket embracing the hinge pintle 19. The inner and outer socket portions project respectively from the inner and outer sides of the frame, as shown by Figs. 5 and 6, so that the socket does not form a protuberance wholly at one side of the frame, but forms two relatively small protuberances projecting from opposite sides of the frame. The buckle, therefore, has a neat and symmetrical form. Owing to the relatively slight projection of the socket from the outer side of the frame, the portions of the usual straps bearing on the outer side of the socket do not bulge outwardly, so far as would be the case if the projecting portion of the socket were entirely at the outer side of the frame. The channeled form of thebar 17 stifiens the bar and strengthens the socket of which it forms a part.

The outer surface of the bar 16 is preferably concave in cross section, its outer edge being raised so that it serves to guard the points of the prongs 18, as shown by Fig. 6.

It will be seen that the inner socket portion 17 is formed by the stamping operation which forms the frame and the ear 17, and that the outer socket portion is formed by the operation of bending the ear 17 so that the only operations required in making the buckle, are, first, the frame-stamping and ear-forming operation; second, the operation of assembling the frame and staple, and, third, the operation of bending the ear.

When the frame and staple are assembled the staple bears only on the outer side of the frame, the staple neck bearing on the grooved seat formed by the outer side of the intermediate bar 17* and the prongs normally bearing on the outer surface of the outer longitudinal bar 16. The staple is therefore supported by the frame during the operation of bending the ear l7 upward, backward and downward over the staple neck. The ear-bending operation is the only operation required to complete the buckle after the parts thereof are assembled.

I claim:

A buckle comprising a frame including transverse end bars, inner and outer longitudinal bars and an intermediate longitudinal bar offset inwardly from the plane of the frame and channeled to form a groove seat, an integral ear extending from an edge of said intermediate bar and cooperating with the grooved portion of the bar to provide a tongue-retaining socket, and a tongue formed of a staple provided with a neck bearin on the said grooved seat and prongs 10 normal y bearing on the outer side of the outer longitudinal bar, so that when assembling 0f the frame and staple is completed by bending over the ear, the staple bears only on the outer side of the frame and said socket projects equally from the inner and outer sides of the frame.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature.

IMMANUEL PFEIFFER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. 0." i 

